Mumbai: Man gets 10 yrs in jail for robbing woman on train, dragging her out

According to the prosecution, the accused, Mukadar Idrisi, tried to snatch the handbag from Pratibha Tripathi. In the scuffle, when she refused to let go of her bag, the accused dragged the woman till the door and jumped down the train, also causing her to fall off.

While the accused escaped with the purse, the woman sustained severe injuries on her head and hand. She managed to wave out to a motorman of an oncoming suburban local, who stopped the train and sought help from the passengers for the woman to be taken on the train.

She was helped to alight at Byculla railway station from where she was rushed to Sir J J Hospital and remained admitted for five days, additional public prosecutor Abhijeet Gondwal submitted before the court.

During the trial, the woman was among the witnesses examined, along with the deputy station master at Byculla railway station, who was another eyewitness, and the doctor who treated her and others.

Idrisi’s lawyer, Sanjay Naik, appointed through legal aid, had submitted that he was wrongly implicated as the actual culprit could not be traced.

“It has to be considered that the life of the passenger was put at stake, specifically an older woman. This particular aspect deserves absolute consideration, and therefore, such overt act of the accused cannot be neglected and he cannot be set free on the said count,” additional sessions judge A A Joglekar said on April 5.

While the accused was acquitted on charges of attempt to murder, as the court concluded that his intention was to rob and not cause death, he was convicted under section 392 (robbery) along with section 397 (robbery or dacoity with an attempt to cause death or grievous hurt of the Indian Penal Code and section 154 of the Railways Act, for endangering safety of persons traveling on a railway.